Indian shuttlers rule the roost in SAF Games

Indian shuttlers bagged five gold and five silver medals on Thursday to end their campaign on a high in the 11th South Asian Games here.

Indian shuttlers bagged five gold and five silver medals on Thursday to end their campaign on a high in the 11th South Asian Games here.

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Having made it an all-Indian issue in the open category, Indian shuttlers completed the formalities at the Wooden Floor Gymnasium courts to return home with a rich haul of seven gold and five silver.

Earlier, Indian men and women's sides led by national champion duo of Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde had bagged the top honours in the team events.

With this recognition, they improved on their previous SAF Games (Colombo) finish where they missed a silver medal in the mixed doubles category.

Living up to their billings, Chetan Anand (men's singles); Sayali Gokhale (women's singles); Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas (men's doubles); Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurien (women's doubles); and Valiyaveetil Diju and Ashwini Ponnappa (mixed doubles) clinched the gold medals in their respective categories.

Extremely happy with the result, Indian coach Dipankar Bhattacharjee told PTI, "We have dominated through out the tournament and improved on our last SAF Games show in 2006. I am really happy for the side as it has helped them prepare for the upcoming Thomas Uber Cup and the All-England championship."